[[17]]

[1] The concurrence of superadded ས་ with a consonant already [[11]]compound produces in WT some irregularities, which cannot all be specified here (see the diction.). The custom of CT, according to which the ས་ is entirely neglected is in this instance easier to be followed. [↑]

Part II.

Etymology.

[[Contents]]

Chapter I.

The Article.

11. Peculiarities of the Tibetan article. 1. What have been called Articles by Csoma and Schmidt, are a number of little affixes: པ་ བ་ མ་ པོ་ བོ་ མོ་, and some similar ones, which might perhaps be more adequately termed denominators, since their principal object is undoubtedly to represent a given root as a noun, substantive or adjective, as is most clearly perceptible in the instance of the roots of verbs, to which པ་ or བ་ impart the notion of the Infinitive and Participle, or the nearest abstract and nearest concrete nouns that can possibly be formed from the idea of a verb. These affixes are not, however,—except in this case—essential to a noun, as many substantives and adjectives and most of the pronouns are never accompanied by them, and even those which usually appear connected with them, will drop them upon the slightest occasion. 2. Almost the only case in which a syntactical use of them, like that of the English definite Article, is perceptible, is that mentioned § [20. 3]; a formal one, that of distinguishing the Gender, occurs in a limited number of words, where མོ་ denotes the female, པོ་ the masculine. Thus: རྒྱལ་ gyál-po ‘king’, རྒྱལ་ gyál-mo ‘queen’. Or, [[18]]if the word in the masculine (or rather common) gender has no article, མོ་ is added: སེང་ séṅ-ge ‘lion’, སེང་ ‘lioness’. 3. In most instances, by far, their only use is to distinguish different meanings of homonymous roots, e.g. སྟོན་ (s)tón-pa (tó̤n-pa), ‘teacher’; སྟོན་ (s)tón-mo (tó̤n-mo) ‘feast’; སྟོན་ (s)tón-kʽa (tó̤n-kʽa) ‘autumn’. Even this advantage, however, is given up, as soon as a composition takes place, and then the meaning can only be inferred from the context, or known from usage: མིང་ (from སྟོན་) ‘name feast’ (given on the occasion of naming or christening an infant); སྟོན་ (from སྟོན་) ‘autumnal month’. In some instances the putting or omitting of these articles is optional; more frequently the usage varies in different provinces. 4. The peculiar nature of these affixes is most clearly shown by the manner in which they are connected with the indefinite article § [13].